cakewalk: an easy task; a once-popular dance style
Cakewalks originated in the antebellum South as walking competitions among slaves. With plantation owners judging the winners, couples performed a kind of shuffle-glide step with backs arched and chests thrown out. Later a high strutting step was added. The most elegant walk "took the cake"—an actual cake awarded as a prize. Cakewalks are thought to have originated as parodies of the ballroom dances of the time. Competitive cakewalks were so popular that champions often traveled to other plantations to compete.
By the late nineteenth century, the cakewalk had evolved into a dance performed on vaudeville. A few years later, trendsetters were dancing the cakewalk at parties. Around this time, fairs began featuring moving cakewalks—platforms that tilted back and forth so those standing on them had to shift from foot to foot to keep their balance.
By the early twentieth century, boxers began using cakewalk to describe a fight that was easy to win. From there, the meaning generalized to cover any easy task. Meanwhile, the original dance eventually disappeared. Piece of cake, also slang for some easy task or pleasant situation, may or may not be related to cakewalks. The phrase first began appearing in the 1930s.